Ferguson Essay

The shooting in Ferguson made a huge impact and brought up another worldwide debate about many topics such as police brutality, racism, and of course violent protesting. My main focus in my essay wasn't to debate any of these sensitive topics, but instead chose two significant leaders during the incident. I chose to compare the speeches of Captain Ron Johnson and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. These two speakers, or rhetors, gave two different speeches and I wanted to compare what they said and how it impacted their different audiences. 

This essay was my first time writing analytically, so it was a type of writing I wasn't really used to. However, it was a current event shortly after all the protests in Ferguson began to emerge. It was interesting on how each say a new story had emerged or new evidence was found. It was writing in real time. Compared to my research essay on the ballerina, those texts had already been published where as in Ferguson, the texts I used had only been a few days old. Because I hadn't had much experience with my writing, I struggled with my topic sentences and being able to support my claims with enough evidence and finding the connections in the speeches. For example...

"A couple days later, Johnson spoke at a rally at a local Ferguson church. Wearing the same uniform, he once again establishes his credibility as a rhetor. His direct audience seems to consist of community members and the family of Michael Brown. This clip, also uploaded to YouTube, is also another implied audience, and is unclear as if Johnson knew if he was being filmed or not.  Then in his speech gives a much more in depth impression of himself. He starts off by apologizing to the Brown family" 

Compared to my research essay...
"Misty Copeland is an African American soloist with the American Ballet Theatre. Instead of Copeland donning a pink tutu dancing in the Nutcracker, she was dressed in a black sports bra and spanks with pointe shoes. There is a series of tight whipping turns and jumps to show off her arched feet and long legs. The commercial itself is extremely powerful and breathtaking to watch as she dances with strength and attitude as well. This image is very different from the typical images everyone thinks of at first, because not only is a major athletic brand sponsoring Copeland, it displays a very different side of dance. In this advertisement specifically, Copeland as a rhetor has displayed her talent of ballet to a different audience of athletes and other dancers. The ad is very dramatic and strong without being too overwhelming. This image as an outlier is a strong argument against the norms of ballet. As graceful and elegant as dancers are, they are very strong and countless hours of classes and rehearsals in the studio are needed to get to where the bar is set. Competition is still a huge driving factor in the dance world."

Instead of only focusing on what was going on in the video of Ron Johnson, I should have included more on how it impacted the situation and drawing those connections back to my thesis and elaborate more with evidence from the speeches. I was really fortunate to have the help of my peers and professor in composing this essay. I really needed the guidance to format this paper correctly and feedback really helped me out. I really think that learning a new writing style improved my writing in that I can now make arguments from different texts and draw those connections without simply reporting on what's happening. 

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